Easily launch Outlook with one of its troubleshooting command-line switches

OutlookParameterGUI is a simple, portable troubleshooting tool which makes it easy to launch Outlook 2007-2013 with one of the program's command-line switches.

If Outlook won't start, for instance, then your first step should be to try launching it without extensions, the reading pane or any toolbar customisations. And to do this you need to launch the program with the /safe command line switch. That's a little awkward, though - you'll have to manually browse to the executable, or perhaps create a custom shortcut - and so using OutlookParameterGUI could be a simpler option. Just choose the /safe parameter from its list, click Start and the program will automatically launch Outlook's "Safe Mode" for you.

You don't have to know what a particular command line switch does, either, as OutlookParameterGUI provides basic explanations for you. Choose the "/cleanprofile" parameter, say, and you'll read that this "removes invalid profile keys and recreates default Registry keys where applicable": again, that sounds like something which might be worth trying if your Outlook installation has been damaged for some reason.

And as a bonus, there's also a tab with useful details about your copy of Outlook: the product ID, version number, architecture (32 or 64-bit), even the serial number (check Options > Show Serial to reveal this).

You do need to be careful how you use OutlookParameterGUI, though, as some of its settings make changes which you can't reverse: for example, choosing /cleanrules will "delete client and server-based rules". Read the explanation of each setting, and don't use it unless you understand precisely what it'll do, and you're sure that's appropriate for your installation.

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."

8.48 brings:
- Optimized grass rendering and procedural foliage system preview
- Plugins available in Marketplace
- Improved accuracy for motion blur
- New Tone Mapper
- Support for all the latest VR hardware including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Steam VR and HTC Vive, Leap Motion, and Sony's Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4
- "Scrubbable" network replays with rewind support and live time scrubbing
- Visualize the memory footprint of game assets in an interactive tree map UI